Lisa Blankenship: Remix of Research Project (2150)

Introduction: This assignment is one I’ve used for several years. It asks students to re-conceptualize the arguments they make in their major research project for the term using multimedia. For example, they could re-imagine and re-design their traditional academic essay into a podcast for a public audience outside the class, posting it on Blogs@Baruch or YouTube. The assignment asks students to consider the significance of key rhetorical concepts of the course such as audience, genre, purpose, media, and delivery, and gives them practice composing using elements beyond alphabetic text for public audiences on digital platforms. For details on readings, see “Schedule” on our course blog.

Click here to view the syllabus associated with this assignment.

This assignment contains three parts: Assignment Sheet (PDF), Composer’s Letter (PDF), and Peer Review Sheet (PDF)

Assignment Sheet

 

ENG 2150: Writing II[1]

Course Syllabus • Section KTA Hybrid • Spring 2016

 

Project 3 Assignment: Remix

 

“Opportunities to think and compose multimodally[2] can help us develop an increasingly complex and accurate understanding of writing, composition instruction, and text.”

—Dr. Cynthia Selfe, Ohio State University

 

How do different media offer different affordances? Does the medium[3] change the message?

How can remediation be used as a lens to see an argument in new ways?

In this final major assignment I’ll ask that you return to your Research-Based Argument Project and re-create it as a multimedia piece. I want you to think of the narrative you wrote and the argument you made about your story and research but presented using a variety of semiotic modes (sound, video, audio files, and alphabetic text) and presented in the medium of the Web using whatever technologies you wish to explore. Digital remediation is “re-mediating”—adapting a message from its current page-based medium to some other medium using digital technology. This project asks you to consider the various affordances of the medium: techniques, audiences, language use, etc. that may or may not be available to you in a page-based medium, as well as reflect on what rhetorical knowledge does transfer across different media.

Examples

This project is about affordances of different media, especially in terms of interactivity with your audience. You should imagine your audience as extending beyond our class to include (possibly) publication in our new online student intellectual journal. In other words, imagine that you will share this project in a public venue and not just to your peers and professor. Examples include:

  • A audio essay or podcast version of your research project
  • A short video using WeVideo or iMovie that illustrates your story and argument from your previous project
  • A “mashup” or “remix” (where you take images, videos, audio, etc. from other sources and re-present them in new, creative ways to conceptualize your research project argument)

 

Production & Assessment

The Remix project consists of two components: a multimedia/modal piece and a written, reflective component. Together they constitute 20% of your total course grade.

 

Multimodal Research-Based Argument (60% of project grade)

The best projects will reflect the following learning outcomes, or: In your Remediation Project you should:

  • Basic Assignment: Revise your research-based argument paper for a different audience (public), genre (of your choosing) and medium (print to web).
  • Thesis/Argument: Convey the argument in your Research-Based Argument project in a new way, using other modes of creation besides strictly alphabetic text. Your audience should not have to guess what your argument is: your argument in your creative project should be clear as a “stand alone piece” to an audience outside our class who knows nothing about your work.
  • Creativity/originality in making your argument: Be creative. Your goal is to create a piece that engages the audience you’re envisioning (most immediately our class but also beyond) in your argument and research. You can do this in a number of ways: by appeals to logic (logos) using alphabetic text/numbers/research. You can use images and video clips to appeals to emotion (pathos). How well do you select interesting images or video clips? How well do you arrange them to tell a story?
  • Sources: You should use Creative Commons source material if at all possible and should give credit to the creator / source in your project (see this blog for suggestions on best ways to do this). Use list of Works Cited if your project does not lend itself to a credits screen.
  • Proofreading/Grammar: If you use alphabetic text, your writing style is concise and compelling, and you carefully edit and proofread your final draft so that your writing contains no errors in spelling or grammar (unless you’re do so intentionally to make a point).
  • Length: The final version should be long enough to convey an argument but not longer than 3:00 minutes.

 

Reflection & Production Rationale (4 pages, double spaced; 40% of project grade):

Your written, extended Writer’s Reflective Letter will comprise 40% of your grade for this project. Keep in mind this is a writing class. You will not be graded on your use of technology as much as your resourcefulness: how did you find images, choose the tech, get help, and write about your rhetorical choices, successes, and failures in your reflective essay?

Excellent Reflective and Production Rationale Papers will reflect the following learning outcomes. In this “extended writer’s letter” you should:

  • Demonstrate that you understand the importance of rhetorical considerations for any communicative act: the audience, purpose, genre, medium, and explain your thinking about your rhetorical situation and choices for this project.
  • Discuss your choice of mode and medium to use depending on your rhetorical situation. Remember:
    • mode = a way of creating and communicating using signs and symbol systems such as sound, photography, video and film, illustrations, art, and alphabetic text
    • multimodal = creating and communicating using a combination of modes
    • media = ways of creating, delivering, and consuming multimodal symbol systems
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the particular affordances you gained by remediating your previous project into a multimedia format.
  • Discuss affordances and constraints of various technologies and media you choose (i.e. the time involved with learning new technologies, the glitches often involved with open source platforms, privacy issues with sharing your work online, and copyright issues and affordances of Creative Commons).
  • Describe in detail the changes you made to your project after getting feedback.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the implications of sharing your work in a public venue beyond the classroom. Where would you publish or share it? Is it ready for public view? How do you know? Is it not ready? Explain your production and revision process and what revisions you would want or need to make before publishing or sharing this piece with a wider audience. (Your grade is not dependent upon your decision to publish or not—just your rhetorical awareness in making the decision.)

 

Process and Due Dates

  • Your draft, with an Extended Writer’s Letter, will be due for a whole-class screening and feedback on Tues, May 17.
  • Your final project, with a revised Extended Writer’s Letter, is due on your personal course blog by our Finals Time (though we will not meet and will not have a final): Thursday, May 26, 3:30pm.
  • This final project comprises 20% of your total course grade and consists of your Remix piece and your Extended Writer’s Reflective Letter.

[1] Panel 58 of Jacob Lawrence’s 1940-41 series about the Great Migration of African Americans to the North. Credit: The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Source: The New York Times.

[2] Modes are semiotic or symbol systems used to create meaning (images, alphabetic text, sound, graphic design/layout)

[3] Media are the “tools and material resources” used to produce and disseminate texts (p. 22). Examples of media include books, radio, television, computers, paint brush and canvas, and human voices (227).

Lauer, Claire. “Contending with Terms: “Multimodal” and “Multimedia” in the Academic and Public Spheres.” Computers and Composition 26 (2009) 225–239.

Composer’s Letter

ENG 2150: Writing II

Dr. Lisa Blankenship • Course Syllabus • Section KTA Hybrid • Spring 2016

 

Project 3 Assignment: Remix Composer’s Letter

In ~ 300 words, address the following questions (which you’ll also need to address in greater length for your final, extended composer’s reflection and production rationale). Note: you will not receive professor feedback without this letter. Post this as an introduction to your video [or project] draft as a “New Page” entitled “Remix Draft” on your personal course blog.

Describe the audience, purpose, genre, and medium for your project? What is the argument you’re trying to make? Describe your choices in how you’ve gone about making this argument; what rhetorical choices have you made in terms of audio, photography, video, fonts, and text on screen [if you’ve done a video]? How has remaking your work into a multimedia piece changed your project? What is lost and what is gained, in other words?

Describe your process so far—biggest challenges and what you like best. Which part of the rubric below do you feel you’ve done well on and which are not as strong? What do you specifically want your reviewers to focus on in their review? What are your main concerns or questions at this point?

Multimodal Research-Based Argument Rubric (60% of project grade)

The best projects will reflect the following learning outcomes, or: In your Remediation Project you should:

  • Basic Assignment: Revise your research-based argument paper for a different audience (public), genre (of your choosing) and medium (print to web).
  • Thesis/Argument: Convey the argument in your Research-Based Argument project in a new way, using other modes of creation besides strictly alphabetic text. Your audience should not have to guess what your argument is: your argument in your creative project should be clear as a “stand alone piece” to an audience outside our class who knows nothing about your work.
  • Creativity/originality in making your argument: Be creative. Your goal is to create a piece that engages the audience you’re envisioning (most immediately our class but also beyond) in your argument and research. You can do this in a number of ways: by appeals to logic (logos) using alphabetic text/numbers/research. You can use images and video clips to appeals to emotion (pathos). How well do you select interesting images or video clips? How well do you arrange them to tell a story?
  • Sources: You should use Creative Commons source material if at all possible and should give credit to the creator / source in your project (see this blog for suggestions on best ways to do this). Use a Works Cited list if your project doesn’t lend itself to a credits screen.
  • Proofreading/Grammar: If you use alphabetic text, your writing style is concise and compelling, and you carefully edit and proofread your final draft so that your writing contains no errors in spelling or grammar (unless you’re do so intentionally to make a point).
  • Length: The final version should be long enough to convey an argument but not longer than 3:00 minutes.

Peer Review Sheet

 

ENG 2150: Writing II

Course Syllabus • Section KTA Hybrid • Spring 2016

 

Project 3 Assignment: Remix Peer Review

 

Composer’s Name:  _______________________________________________

 

After reading the composer’s letter and viewing your peer’s project, please respond to the following as a “Comment” on the composer’s personal course blog no later than class time Th, 5/19.

 

What elements of the project stand out to you as the most powerful or effective in the piece?

 

 

 

What is the argument or point of the piece?

 

 

 

Is the piece creative and engaging? Did the composer seem to take risks with the project? Explain your response.

 

 

 

What suggestions do you have for improvement? (Pay particular attention to any questions the composer has raised in her/his cover letter.)

 

 

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